1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data reproduction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Content is stored on a variety of media and is transferred or sold. Content is a set of data recorded on a medium, such as a compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM) or a digital versatile disk read only memory (DVD-ROM), transmitted, and enjoyed by humans. Examples of content include applications used on personal computers (PCs), music, and video. Media are designed to have correction capabilities so that they are readable even if having been damaged to some extent. However, if such media are damaged to an extent exceeding the permissible level, the damaged portion cannot be read or cannot operate properly. For example, if a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM is accidentally scratched during insertion into or removal from a player or media storage case, the scratched portion may not be read or easily read.
As a solution, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-231570 describes a method in which a particular data area including a portion corresponding to a damaged portion of a medium is stored as an irreproducible data area so as not to be played back consistently. For example, in a music CD, a defective track is stored as an irreproducible track so as to prevent sound skipping during reproduction of the track.
However, with the known method described above, it is still difficult to reproduce part of content. If an error that is beyond correction capabilities occurs, the reproduction of content intended by the content provider cannot be carried out.